From Chongqing to Seventh Avenue
Li was born in Chongqing, China. His first memory of fashion, he told Vogue during the Fashion Fund process, was shopping with his mother at a big independent boutique in the city that carried brands like Giorgio Armani and Versace. He came to New York to study. According to the LVMH Prize, he graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2023, founded LII shortly afterward and debuted his first collection for Fall/Winter 2024. Along the way he interned at Proenza Schouler, and that, he told Vogue, is what convinced him to strike out on his own. “When I was interning with Proenza Schouler, I got to know how a brand works—the graphic design, sound design, material design, models, casting, styling,” he said. “I feel like the only way to get my hands on each one of the areas is to have your own brand.” His favorite memory so far is his first show, in a small gallery in Tribeca. “The vivid memory is when I walked up from the basement and then said hi to the audience,” he told Vogue, “my head went fully blank.”Sportswear, cut like couture
The LVMH Prize describes LII’s work as exploring the intersection of sport and couture, with bold shapes and silhouettes interpreted in tactile materials and a modern interplay of color. In awarding him the Karl Lagerfeld Prize, LVMH said his designs seamlessly blend sportswear with couture influences. WWD describes the label as blending minimalist ’90s silhouettes with technical sportswear and structured, avant-garde shapes. LII makes both womenswear and menswear. Li admires a designer who built something larger than clothes. Asked by Vogue which brand or business he looks up to, he named Miuccia Prada: “She does more than fashion. She merges art, she has the foundation, and I think she’s grown the business in a healthy and disciplined way.”Paris, then New York
The Lagerfeld Prize came first on the international stage. At the 13th LVMH Prize final, held on September 4, 2026, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas revealed Li as the winner. The prize carries a €200,000 endowment and a year of mentorship from the LVMH group. The main LVMH Prize that night went to the Belgian designer Julie Kegels. Six weeks later, New York followed. Now in its 22nd year, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund supports U.S.-based talent and counts Proenza Schouler, Joseph Altuzarra and Christopher John Rogers among past winners. Li was one of ten finalists who presented to the judges at One World Trade Center, each given 15 minutes to explain the past, present and future of their brand. The two runners-up, each awarded $100,000, were Aisling Camps, whom Vogue describes as a Trinidadian-born engineer turned knitwear designer who made her official runway debut at New York Fashion Week in September, and Emily Dawn Long. The dinner was hosted by Tory Burch, Thom Browne, Chloe Malle and Anna Wintour, according to the CFDA. “The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund is an important reminder of why we must continue to champion original voices and true creativity,” Browne, the CFDA’s chairman, said in a statement. Malle, Vogue’s head of editorial content, said the finalists “reminded us that there is no shortage of imagination in American fashion.”What the money is for
For all the glamour of the ceremonies, the hard part of running LII is the business, and Li has been candid about it. “When you start to consider the income, the revenue, the loss, and the money you spend, suddenly you’re turning your interest into a job,” he told Vogue at the start of the process. “The most rewarding part: You get to control everything. You get to pick your show music, which is my favorite part of doing a show.” Asked by WWD what he would do with the $300,000, he was direct. “Well, definitely human resources. My husband and I are working on this brand really hard, and we barely have any help because we want to do everything ourselves, and because we don’t have the budget,” he said. “I think now with the help, especially the help from America, where the brand is based, it’s a really good feeling to get support from here.”Why it matters
Li’s year is a map of how a New York label gets built now: a city school, an internship inside an established house, a small first show, and then the prize circuit on both sides of the Atlantic. It is also a reminder that New York’s next generation is international by default. A designer from Chongqing, trained on Seventh Avenue, now carries the support of both Paris and New York into his next season. The test, as he says himself, is turning that support into a team. Read on: more names to know in Eight New York Designers to Know Before 2027, and where the city trains its talent in Where New York Learns Fashion. Find talent in the MOAM directory · Subscribe to The MOAM List · Follow MOAM on Instagram @moam_co and Facebook makingofamogul · Tips and corrections: hello@makingofamogul.comSources
Photo: “Fashion Institute of Technology May 2025” by Kidfly182, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Editor’s note: facts in this article were checked against the linked sources in October 2026. Zane Li’s words are quoted as published by Vogue and WWD; Thom Browne’s and Chloe Malle’s words are quoted from the CFDA’s announcement; Li’s biography and the Karl Lagerfeld Prize details are from the LVMH Prize and LVMH. Li’s age is as given by LVMH in September 2026. MOAM has no commercial relationship with LII. The featured photograph shows the FIT campus, not the designer.
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